Motorola Backflip MB300 Mobile Phone Teardown

Overview / Main Features

The Motorola Backflip is an Android based smartphone design with a reverse flip-out full QWERTY keypad and a 3.1 inch capacitive touchscreen display. Motorola also implemented an unique secondary touchpad on the backside of the display in order improve screen usability (avoiding finger obstructions) while the user navigates the device. The tri-band UMTS (850/1900/2100 MHz) and quad band GSM (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) mobile phone features a 5MP auto focus camera, GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, e-compass and expandable memory via microSD. Not unlike other Android 1.5 based handsets we've come across before, the Motorola Backflip's electronic design is primarily a Qualcomm design (MSM7200A) and features 2Gb of Mobile SDRAM.

Motorola Backflip MB300 Mobile Phone Main Image

Smartphone Users

Released

Per press release at CES 2010 (Jan 6th), first release on the AT&T network on Feb. 18, 2010 .

Motorola Backflip MB300 Mobile Phone - Main PCB Top

Pricing - At the time of writing (May 2010), the Motorola is offered on AT&T's website for $349 "no commitment or $99 with a 2 year contract.

Availability - assumed global

Volume Estimations

For the purposes of this teardown analysis, we have assumed a lifetime production volume of 1M units.

As a reminder, teardown volume production assumptions are primarily used for our cost analysis in terms of amortized NRE and tooling costs, especially for custom components specific to the model being analyzed (mechanical components especially). Unless assumed volumes are different by an order of magnitude, minor changes in volume (say 1 million vs. 2) rarely have a large net effect on our final analysis because of this.

Motorola Backflip MB300 Mobile Phone - Main PCB Bottom

Main Cost Drivers Representing ~70% of total materials cost

Qualcomm - MSM7200A - Baseband Processor - Quad-Band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA 7.2Mbps, HSUPA 5.76Mbps, GPS, Integrated 528MHz ARM11 Applications Processor & 256MHz ARM9 Microprocessor

Display Module Value Line Item - 3.1' Diagonal, 262K Color TFT, 320 x 480 Pixels

Touchscreen Assembly - Capacitive, w/ ITO Film Over ITO Glass, w/ Integral Flex PCB, & Board to Board Plug

Camera Module Value Line Item - 5MP, CMOS, 1/3.2' Format, Auto Focus Lens

Toshiba Semiconductor - TYBC0A111107LC - MCP - 4Gb NAND Flash + 2Gb Mobile SDRAM (Estimated)

Bluetooth/ WLAN Module Value Line Item - WLAN IEEE802.11b/g & Bluetooth V2.1+EDR

SanDisk - MicroSD Memory Card - 2GB

Battery - Li-Ion, 3.7V, 1380mAh

AC to USB Adapter - 5.1V, 850mA

Qualcomm - PM7540 - Power Management IC - w/ Integrated USB Transceiver

Total BOM Cost $130.74

Motorola Backflip MB300 Mobile Phone Cost Analysis

What Is Not Included in our Cost Analysis

The total materials and manufacturing costs reported in this analysis reflect ONLY the direct materials cost (from component vendors and assorted EMS providers), AND manufacturing with basic test. Not included in this analysis are costs above and beyond the material manufacture of the core device itself - cost of intellectual property, royalties and licensing fees (those not already included into the per component price), software, software loading and test, shipping, logistics marketing and other channel costs including not only EMS provider and the OEM's margin, but that of other resellers. Our cost analysis is meant to focus on those costs incurred in the manufacture of the core device and exceptionally in some circumstances the packaging and literature as well.

Manufacturing Notes

Country of Origin / Volume Assumptions

Based on markings, the unit was assembled in China. Furthermore, we have assumed that custom mechanicals (plastics, metals, etc.) were also sourced in China.

Country of origin assumptions relate directly to the associated cost of manufacturing, where calculated by iSuppli. In the cases of 'finished' sub-assemblies (such as display module), we do not calculate internal manufacturing costs, but rather assess the market price of the finished product in which case country of origin assumptions may or may not have a direct effect on pricing.

Remember also that labor rates are applied directly only to hand inserted components and systems in our bill of materials, and although regional assumptions do, these new rates do not have a direct effect on our modeled calculations of placement costs for automated SMD assembly lines. ""Auto" inserted components (such as SMT components) placement costs are calculated by an iSuppli algorithm which allocates a cost per component based on the size and pincount of the device. This calculation is affected by country or region of origin as well.

Design for Manufacturing / Device Complexity

The Motorola Backflip has an overall component count of 1097 (excluding box contents), of which 702 components reside on the Main PCB assembly. Compared to other smartphones we've analyzed in the past, the Backflip occupies the upper extremes of the complexity curve (~1100 parts).

Component counts have a direct bearing on the overall manufacturing cycle times and costs, and also can increase or decrease overall yields and re-work. Our calculations of manufacturing costs factor counts and more qualitative complexities in the design. The cost of manufacturing is also, to some extent, decreased in this case because of assumed labor rate applied for China.

Note that manual labor has a much smaller effect on auto-insertion assembly lines (for the Main PCB, for example), where manufacturing costs are much more capital equipment intensive and driven by these investment costs.

Design Notes

Here is a summary of the major components used in the Motorola Backflip design:

Main PCB

Baseband

• Baseband Processor - Qualcomm - MSM7200A

Bluetooth/WLAN/FM

• Bluetooth/WLAN/FM IC - Broadcom - BCM4325FKWBG

Power Management

• Power Management IC - Qualcomm - PM7540

Memory

• Toshiba Semiconductor - TYBC0A111107LC - 4Gb NAND Flash + 2Gb Mobile SDRAM (Estimated)

RF Transceiver

• RF Transceiver IC - Qualcomm - RTR6285
• Antenna Switch - Sony - CXM3519ER

User Interface

• Electronic Compass - AKM Semiconductor - AK8973N
• USB Transceiver - SMSC
• I/O Expander and QWERTY Keypad Controller - Analog Devices - ADP5588ACPZ-R7

Display

• Display Module - 3.1' Diagonal, 262K Color TFT, 320 x 480 Pixels

Motorola Backflip MB300 Mobile Phone - Box Contents